Thousands of mourners today attended the funeral of an anti-Syrian MP whose assassination has deepened Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Mourners packed the streets in east Beirut, waving the white and green flag of the rightwing Phalange party to which Antoine Ghanem belonged - as did the former industry minister Pierre Gemayel, who was assassinated in November.

Party anthems blared from loudspeakers as pallbearers carried Ghanem and his two bodyguards' coffins, draped in Lebanese and Phalange flags, to the Sacre Coeur church.

"This is a crime. We want Lebanon to be free of foreign forces and to be independent. We want the Lebanese to live together as brothers, from all sects," one mourner, Ghaleb Shayya, told Reuters.

Ghanem, 64, who represented the Christian party, and six others died in a car bomb attack on Wednesday.

The killing, which drew widespread international condemnation, has deepened fears that the divided country may lurch into further political turmoil.

The timing of the assassination, the sixth anti-Syrian politician to die since a truck bomb killed the former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, came just days before parliament meets to elect a new president.

The death of Ghanem means the ruling alliance of Sunni, Christian and Druze factions - with 68 MPs in the 128-member assembly - now has only a slim majority over the opposition bloc that includes the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbullah.

Rival leaders last night reportedly discussed how to defuse a 10-month-old political crisis that has paralysed Lebanon's institutions, but it was highly unlikely they could strike a deal in time for next week's vote.

"Things have not collapsed but more time is needed to ease tension. A compromise is still possible, eventually," said a senior opposition source.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, this week warned that the failure to elect a new president could lead to two governments and two presidents, "a very worrisome situation for the peace and security of not only Lebanon, but also peace and security in the region".

The president, who is elected for a one-off six-year term, has limited powers. But the post, which is reserved for the country's Maronite Christian minority, is ostensibly seen as a figure of unity.

The US-backed government led by the prime minister, Faoud Siniora, is looking to parliament to elect someone less pro-Syria than the current president, Emile Lahoud. MPs allied to the prime minister appealed to the world to protect Lebanon from what they called a "new war" by Syria.

"The Syrian regime has taken the decision to bring down the Lebanese republic," the anti-Syrian coalition said in a statement released after a meeting yesterday. "It has assigned its intelligence agencies to liquidate the lawmakers."

Damascus has denied any involvement in Ghanem's death or in the recent spate of assassinations.